Kristers Gudlevskis allowed just 1 goal on 29 shots for the victory, and was likely the margin in the contest today. He left the game Friday after feeling ill, but evidently got enough Vitamin C in the time between then and tonight.

The Syracuse Crunch battled back from a pair of one-goal deficits and then buckled down.

The Crunch answered the Bears’ goals in the first and second periods, pulled ahead in the third and hung on through some tense moments late, as Syracuse beat Hershey, 4-2, at the Onondaga County War Memorial Saturday.

“I thought our guys played really hard tonight — harder than we have in a long time,” said Crunch head coach Rob Zettler. “It was great. From top to bottom, I thought everyone was giving us everything they had. … A lot of blocked shots, a lot of hits — just more physically involved over and above the fights.”

I'm not a big believer in moral victories, but to have two very competitive games in the barn of the league's best team is a positive for Syracuse. We'll see what they get out of Jonathan Drouin after he reports to the team in Tuesday. There's a window here for the Crunch to make a little run, and I hope they get a mad as hell Drouin at the center of that little run.

Adam Erne has 3 goals in his last 3 games. Part of me is incredibly interested to see what Erne could do on the end of some Drouin setups as a duo for now and into the future in the NHL.

That's a really strong effort against arguably the best team in the league. Once the Crunch mix Jonathan Drouin into the roster we'll see if the extra speed/skill can translate into a little run for Syracuse.

That's 3 goals and 5 points in the last 5 games for Erne, and after going the first 22 games of his season without a goal, Slater Koekkoek has gotten on the board in 2 of the last 3. The high draft picks continue to come through for Syracuse.